[lacnog] Fwd: AFRINIC And The Stability Of The Internet Number Registry System

[Tomas Lynch]

¿Qué pasa si TODA la comunidad de internet filtra esos prefijos estilo
bogon?

On Fri, Aug 27, 2021 at 1:09 PM Fernando Frediani <fhfrediani en gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hola todos
>
> A continuación se muestra una declaración de John Curran, CEO de ARIN, que
> explica de manera muy clara y objetiva el caso en disputa en AfriNic.
> Es importante que todos los que sigan el área de recursos de numeración
> comprendan la gravedad de este ataque contra AfriNic y de alguna manera
> demuestren su apoyo para que el RIR pueda reanudar sus actividades con
> normalidad.
> En los últimos tiempos, los signos de mal uso indebido del
> direccionamiento IP para actividades como alquilar por ejemplo ha aumentado
> y es importante apoyar a los RIRs en el proceso de revisión del uso para
> las asignaciones existentes, lo que garantiza que siempre esté en línea con
> las políticas actuales y el contrato firmado previamente.
>
> Saludos
> Fernando
>
> --------- Forwarded Message --------
> Subject: [arin-ppml] AFRINIC And The Stability Of The Internet Number
> Registry System
> Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2021 13:55:17 +0000
> From: John Curran <jcurran en arin.net> <jcurran en arin.net>
> To: ARIN-PPML List <arin-ppml en arin.net> <arin-ppml en arin.net>
>
> ARIN Community -
>
> In response to questions about the dispute in the AFRINIC region, please
> refer to the following article (link and text attached below –
>
> <
> https://teamarin.net/2021/08/27/afrinic-and-the-stability-of-the-internet-number-registry-system/
> >
>
> FYI,
> /John
>
> John Curran
> President and CEO
> American Registry for Internet Numbers
>
> ===
>
> August 27, 2021
>
> AFRINIC And The Stability Of The Internet Number Registry System
>
> By John Curran - President and CEO, American Registry for Internet
> Numbers, Ltd. (ARIN)
>
> As many in the community are aware, the Regional Internet Registry (RIR)
> that serves Africa (AFRINIC) has been involved in litigation with a company
> known as “Cloud Innovation” operating out of the Seychelles and under
> control of an individual named Lu Heng (who resides primarily in Hong
> Kong.) Disputes between RIRs and their customers do occur from time
> to time, and it is best that such disputes are resolved within that RIR,
> its community, and/or the applicable legal and courts system if necessary.
>
>
> ARIN does not normally comment on disputes or related litigation occurring
> at another RIR, but this matter has become quite different, as it is both
> highly public and has potential for significant impact to the overall
> stability of the Internet number registry system and thus to ARIN and
> its community. Therefore, I address the ARIN community to provide insight
> into the nature of the dispute, to highlight some troublesome aspects of
> the ongoing litigation, and finally to reiterate ARIN’s unwavering support
> to AFRINIC and the African networking community.
>
> The Dispute and Litigation
>
> In 2020, AFRINIC completed a registry audit to confirm that number
> resources were properly reflected in the registry; and as a result,
> determined that it required additional information from Cloud Innovation
> regarding its utilization of previously issued Internet number resources.
> This sort of resource review is not uncommon among the RIRs, and ARIN has
> its own resource review process that is similar in nature. Upon reviewing
> the information provided by Cloud Innovation, AFRINIC determined that the
> resources were not being utilized for the purposes for which they were
> issued and noted that they would be revoked (after a suitable time to
> allow customer migration off those resources.) Mr. Lu and his businesses
> disputed AFRINIC’s authority to enforce this provision of its customer
> agreement and instead engaged in several legal actions in the courts in
> Mauritius to prevent having to return the address blocks to AFRINIC.
>
> As noted earlier, normally disputes are routine in nature and are
> generally best resolved by the individual RIR, its community, and/or the
> applicable legal & courts system. However, among the motions that Cloud
> Innovation has made is one that currently freezes AFRINIC’s accounts and
> thus has the potential to hamper AFRINIC’s operations and ability to serve
> both the community in Africa as well as the global community that relies
> upon the Internet number registry system.  ARIN takes stability of the
> Internet number registry system very seriously; and considering this risk,
> we are compelled to provide this update to the ARIN community as it needs
> to be aware of these developments and potential implications. I must also
> share some of ARIN’s knowledge related to this matter as it informs and
> directs our stance going forward.
>
> Prior Dealings with ARIN
>
> ARIN has first-hand experience and insight into Mr. Lu’s business
> practices in seeking IP number resources. Mr. Lu, through Cloud Innovation,
> Ltd., received 6.2 million IPv4 addresses from AFRINIC in four different
> installments[1]; however, it is worth noting that in 2013,Mr. Lu, through
> his company Outside Heaven, Ltd., also approached and sought over one
> million IPv4 addresses from ARIN. ARIN ultimately refused to provide any
> resources to him and his business for two main reasons: First, during the
> review of his application to justify the provision of Internet number
> resources, Mr. Lu refused to provide ARIN with information that
> was repeatedly requested on a number of occasions; and second, the
> information provided by Mr. Lu was misleading and inconsistent.  In
> addition, Mr. Lu had no meaningful business establishment in the ARIN
> region; and based on his own representations, it was clear the intended use
> of the IPv4 addresses—if they were issued—was for business activities
> outside the ARIN service region.  Given the seriousness of potentially
> false statements made to ARIN to obtain number resources, ARIN attempted to
> engage in appropriate due diligence with which Mr. Lu was unwilling to
> cooperate.  ARIN refused his application for IPv4 number resources.
>
> Use of the AFRINIC Resources Out of Africa
>
> ARIN has reviewed the utilization of the number resource blocks issued by
> AFRINIC to Cloud Innovation and determined that the overwhelming majority
> of the approximately 6.2 million IP addresses issued have not been used
> within the African continent. While there are cases of entire address
> blocks being routed from an ISP in South Africa, Cloud Innovation also has
> announced more specific routes from ISPs in Hong Kong and the United
> States. Because more specific announcements take routing precedence, this
> rendered the routing announcement at the South African ISP moot and
> resulted in the vast majority of the traffic usage being outside of
> Africa. Such a result is not surprising as Cloud Innovation has indicated
> that they predominantly “lease” the IP address space to other parties
> rather than utilize it to provide connectivity services directly.
>
> It is apparent that Cloud Innovation’s use of the issued number resources
> is not being used for the purpose for which they were issued; and as such,
> it appears that AFRINIC is within its rights per the registration services
> agreement to reclaim them so that they may be used for the benefit of the
> African community.  This is among the issues that will need to be
> considered by the Mauritian court, as well as whether there was fraud in
> the inception of the contractual process when the resources were issued.
> Because AFRINIC is directly involved in the litigation, it has quite
> properly limited its public comments on the ongoing litigation with Mr. Lu
> and his companies. However, Mr. Lu, and parties related to Mr. Lu, have not
> limited their actions to the courts and have maintained a steady stream of
> confusing and inconsistent misinformation to the public that apparently
> distorts the issues to cast AFRINIC in a most unfavorable light.
> Neither the AFRINIC nor the ARIN communities should expect a quick answer
> from the courts, but it will ultimately yield a ruling. In the interim, as
> procedural motions are being sorted out, the community should not make
> judgements about the court proceeding until the substantive issues are
> addressed.
>
> Joint RIR Stability Fund
>
> The RIRs have committed to mutual assistance, in kind and financial, to
> ensure operational continuity of the Internet number registry system; and
> in 2015, the RIRs established a Joint RIR Stability Fund as a prudent
> contingency measure towards long-term Internet number registry stability.
> The Fund has been established through voluntary pledges of funds from
> individual RIRs’ reserves, and upon an RIR’s duly submitted request for
> support from the Stability Fund, the funds may be made available to support
> that RIR’s registry and policy development activities. There is in excess
> of $2M USD of financial support collectively pledged from the RIRs for this
> purpose; and in addition, support can also be provided in-kind (e.g.,
> through operational staff for support of operational activities if
> needed.)
>
> If AFRINIC requests support in accordance with the Joint RIR Stability
> Fund, ARIN will support such a request.  Furthermore, and without
> reservation, ARIN stands by its unwavering commitment to support AFRINIC
> and will take any and all measures necessary to ensure that neither the
> African networking community, nor the global Internet number registry
> system, is operationally impacted during this period. AFRINIC was formed
> (and has accomplished so much) for the benefit of the African networking
> community and ARIN stands with the community in dealing with those who seek
> to disrupt or exploit it for their own benefit.
>
> [1]
>
> 154.80.0.0/12 (Issued 07/24/2013)
>
> 45.192.0.0/12 (Issued 12/1/2014)
>
> 156.224.0.0/11 (Issued 12/22/2015)
>
> 154.192.0.0/11 (Issued 09/16/2016)
>
> ===
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